Field Recordings – Bali/Java 1998

Balinese night festival

This is a recording made in Tabanan, Bali in summer of 1998. That particular day was a holiday (one of the Balinese Hindu festivals, but I don’t recall the specific occasion). There were celebrations all over the place in Bali that week, and this was a street festival with an unusual hybrid gamelan of bamboo and metal instruments; the next day Balinese friends took us to watch a funeral procession; the coffin was elaborately decorated and carried by about a dozen men, who struggled to keep it on the path as it lunged back and forth. It was explained to us that this was caused by the spirit of the deceased seeking to remain in the world rather than be laid to rest at the cemetary…

Balinese song

Suling solo

A Balinese friend’s grandfather had toured the US in the 60s with his Gamelan (Tabanan is known as one of the main centers for Gamelan in Bali). We visited him and he graciously sang a folk song recounting stories from the  Mahabharata, and played a song for us on suling (end-blown bamboo flute). This was actually the same suling which he brought to the US in the 60s; he gave it to me as a gift after our many visits with him.

Buskers on Javanese public buses 1

Buskers on Javanese public buses 2

Buskers on Javanese public buses 3

Taking the buses and trains around Java you’ll often encounter merchants hopping on and walking through, selling snacks or children’s toys, and guys who walk through the aisles with a guitar singing original material or traditional folk songs. My visit was just after the riots and political turmoil in 1998, and we heard a lot of original songs about the Suharto regime, the corruption of the military and so on. On certain point in these recordings you can also hear a little kid battling it out with the musicians crossroads-duel style using a squeaky toy…

 

Field Recordings – Nepal 1998

These recordings were all made in October of 1998 during a visit to Nepal, using a cassette recorder with a built-in condenser mic, so the recordings are definitely not audiophile quality by any means, but hopefully will be of some interest. Recordings made in Indonesia and Thailand during the same period (and more in keeping with the regional specification of the title of this blog) will be forthcoming in the next few days…

 

Boudanath prayer wheels at sunset

Boudanath, located on the outskirts of Kathmandu,  is (if I remember correctly) the most important Tibetan stupa outside of Tibet itself. Every day at sunset people come out to walk around the stupa and spin the prayer wheels, which line the outside of the stupa and issue prayers and/or blessing when spun.

Tibetan nun chanting at Boudanath

An elderly Tibetan nun was chanting over a bunch of votive candles in the courtyard the same evening.

Tibetan horns and dogs barking

recorded from the window of the guesthouse where I was staying outside of Boudanath. There are loads of monasteries in the area and you would often hear chanting, ritual horns, and other such sounds coming from indeterminate and unseen origins during the sun-bleached, high altitude Kathmandu midday.

Nepali street musician and daughter part 1

Nepali street musician and daughter part 2

Nepali street musician and daughter part 3

Was walking around a neighborhood of Kathmandu near one of the markets and happened across a folk musician and his little daughter playing for tips. The guy was playing a 4 stringed vertical sarangi carved out of a single piece of wood, and the daughter was about 7 years old and was an adorable little kid. I’m really glad I was able to capture so much of their playing, and that I happened to have an extra blank tape with me! It reminds me of Norwegian hardanger fiddle playing in some ways, strangely…